Garden Carnage

Amanda and I are huge Plants vs. Zombies fans.  So when Garden Warfare came out a few months ago, Amanda was quick to buy it on the way home one night.  We signed up for an Xbox Live Gold account that night, and our lives have been more fun ever since.

After we got back from a really nice walk, we started playing.  We're currently on the couch, trading the controller back and forth, and it's awesome!

Away and Home Again

I returned home from a library conference today.  It was the first time Amanda had been apart for more than a single night (the night before our wedding) since I moved out here.

It was weird.  Even though I had a full king size bed to spread out across, I stayed on just half of it.  When I tried to go to sleep, I had a hard time because it was too quiet.  I missed hearing Amanda's soft breathing.

But I'm home again, and it was wonderful to come home to her!

The Real Birthday

So, Amanda's real birthday ended up kind of disappointing.  Amanda opened her final gift from me this morning, but then it was off to work like any other day.  Then later on we got the news that our nephew is in the hospital with pneumonia.  That put a damper on the day fairly quickly.  He's doing okay now, though he'll be in the hospital a few days longer.

So instead of a birthday party or being taken out for supper, Amanda and I stopped briefly at Arby's on the way home from the hospital.  We like Arby's, but it wasn't much of a birthday celebration.  It made me very glad we celebrated early on Monday!

Another Birthday

Wednesday is Amanda's birthday.  I have to share her on her birthday with her family because it will be Scrabble night, and I won't have time to do much special anyway.  So I decided we'd celebrate a bit early.  I bought Amanda some balloons, cooked one of her favourite meals, let her open two of her gifts early, and baked a cake.

I made a fairly basic cake (I ran out of time after doing a bunch of cleaning/rearranging/running around), and then went to work decorating it.  When Amanda saw it, she commented that she liked the friendly alligator on it.

...My cake decorating skills could use some work.  Also my Yoshi-drawing skills.  Still, I thought it turned out pretty good given how quickly I did it!

Endings and Beginnings

It's spring, and it's time for new beginnings.

I've neglected this blog shamelessly since our wedding.  But when I scrolled through it tonight before coming to bed, it reminded me how much I enjoyed writing it at times.  This doesn't necessarily mean I'll be updating every day, but hopefully I'll update more often than my current one-a-month pace.

So first with the endings.  Today was the final day of business for Wiseowl Toys, my parents' toy store. Back in 2002, my brother and I spent a fair chunk of our Thanksgiving weekend at home helping to apply varnish to the first of the shelves that would hold so many toys for so many years.  It was time to close though.  Nearly twelve years is a long time to work 9+ hour days for six days every week.  In that entire time, the longest break my parents we able to take was five days to come up for our wedding last summer.  It's time for a break.  The people of Williams Lake will be sad, I'm sure, but they had one of the greatest toy stores I've ever seen for nearly twelve years.

In another ending my current boss will be leaving the library at the end of next week.  She's been covering the maternity leave of another staff member, and found a new position she'll be starting shortly.  It's strange though.  My original (and permanent) boss is coming back, but at this point, I've worked for my current boss longer than I've worked for her!

Now for another beginning.  Amanda and I gained weight this winter.  Poor health and a ridiculous amount of snow made it tricky for us to keep active all winter.  But now that the weather is nicer, we're going to turn things around.  We started today by walking to buy groceries (roughly a half hour walk in each direction).  I've got tomorrow off, so I'll try to get out for a lengthy wander (or maybe a swim), and I'm sure we'll get out for a walk tomorrow night.  With a bit of discipline and a little luck, maybe we'll have beach-ready bodies when we go to Tyler and Irina's wedding in November.  I can dream, can't I?

Finally, what would this blog be without a picture?  Amanda and I took this photo together a few weekends ago in a mirror at Bouclair Home.  Amanda is wearing one of my hoodies, but the colour suits her quite well, and I caught her referring to it as her hoodie a few times since then.  But when she looks so cute in it, how can I complain?

Prediction

This has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the blog.  Be forewarned.

I just predicted something to Amanda, and I'd like an official record of my prediction.  I've heard the rumours that we'll learn the mother has died in How I Met Your Mother.

I tend to believe those predictions.  However, I also predict that we'll learn that in "present day" (2030), Barney has also died, and that Robin and Ted are planning their final years together.  The arguments that kept them apart in the past will no longer exist.  Ted will already have had children, and Robin will have travelled the world.  They'll both be in their 50s, and there won't be any reason for them not to be together.

Anyway, that's my silly prediction.

Busy Week Behind Me

Last week was busy.  Between Family Literacy Day, Chinese New Year, and other things, I was hopping for a fair chunk of the week.

But things were also good.  I was able to spend time working on the artwork for the Summer Reading Game scoreboard.  Last year, I used level 1-1 of Super Library Patron, my take-off of Super Mario Bros.  This year I'm making level 1-2, and have updated the visual design to look less like the original Super Mario Bros., and more like Super Mario Bros 3.  It's been fun so far, and I'm hoping the scoreboard will be a hit like last year's was.

Oh, and Amanda and I went to the hockey game last night. The Storm lost in a shoutout, but we enjoyed ourselves, which is all that really matters!

Sunny Saturday

Amanda and I have been out and about all morning enjoying the sun. We agreed that tomorrow (when it's -13) would be better for laundry.

We took this photo downtown while walking.

New Phone

After three years, I replaced my phone.  While the old one still worked okay, it was running a very old version of Android (Eclair), and I couldn't download much in the way of new apps.  That would've been okay, but I also worried that the apps I did use would be updated to require a newer version of Android.

Anyway, I've been weighing my options for a few months, and it ultimately came down to a three horse race: the HTC One, the Nexus 5, or the iPhone 5s.

The first is getting close to the point its successor will be released.  I really considered the Nexus, but when I heard Google won't be upgrading Galaxy Nexus phones (only two years old) to the newest version of Android, I lost a little bit of interest.

Finally, there was the iPhone.  The iPhone 4, released three years ago, got the iOS7 upgrade, and I've really liked my iPad in the year I've had it.

So I took the plunge.  This is the first official photo of the Kissing Couple of Grande Prairie taken with my iPhone 5s.

Sick Week Wonderings

So, why is it that when you need something the most, you're unable to get it?  I've been sick for three days now.  I know that, more than anything, getting some extra sleep and eating something will help me get better soon.  With that knowledge in hand, I've tried.

Wednesday:  I was home sick, dozed/slept for most of the day (~10-5), but barely managed to eat a small amount of yogurt in the morning, and couldn't even finish a carrot for supper.  Then I woke up around 1:30 in the morning and tossed, turned and dozed while having weird and frustrating fever dreams until nearly 5:00.  If Amanda hadn't gotten up to get me some Tylenol and milk, I'm not sure what would've happened.  But thanks to her, I finally *slept*.

Thursday:  I was home sick again, but was joined by Amanda this time.  I managed some yogurt in the afternoon and ended up just cooking Kraft Dinner and hot dogs for us because it seemed like something both easy to make and easy to eat.  Then I went to bed, where I tossed and turned for a really long time before giving up and taking some melatonin.  (It normally works pretty well for me on sleepless nights, but it tends to give me vivid dreams, and after the weird dreams I had the previous night, I really wasn't eager to take it).  I finally fell asleep, but woke up nearly two hours before our alarms were set to go off, and couldn't fall back asleep.

Tonight:  it's after midnight, I've been up since ~5:00, and I know I need some sleep, but I'm pretty much wide awake.

So, let me reiterate my original question:  why is it that when you need something the most, you're unable to get it?